Roberto da Costa has rebranded AIM from Avengers Idea Mechanics to America Idea Mechanics in the hopes of having a diverse team of heroes to defend America in this day and age of controversy. Is this a giant politically correct crap fest?

Actually, no it’s a really good read.

Now new readers who didn’t read New Avengers are going to be confused indefinitely. During the relaunch of “All New All Different Marvel” during 2015, one of the titles to come out of it was the 5th iteration of the “New Avengers”, this time created and led by Robert da Costa aka Sunspot of the New Mutants back in the day. With his family’s fortune, he purchased AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics, old evil science organization), and turned it into an organization for the benefit of the Avengers. Having recruited his own team, (a team that would only survive 18 issues because of Marvel’s insistence on relaunches) This new book USAvengers attempts to continue the team with dropping half the roster, and adding a few more in the hopes of having a Patriotic team for the benefit of America’s people You might be asking. “But what about the New Avengers?” I’ll get to that one day.

So, this issue is a bit of world building, mixed with exposition in the form of interviews mixed with a full-on battle with a volcano on top of a helicarrier. Yea. You don’t see that every day even in comics. Anyway, the comic introduces us to our core team, da Costa now going by Citizen V acting as ops manager and leader, his long time New Mutants pal Sam Guthrie AKA Cannonball; Doreen Green the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl; General Maverick, one of the antagonists during the “Avengers Standoff” Event, as the new Red Hulk; Toni Ho, the daughter of Yinsen the man who helped Tony stark build the first Iron Man suit, as the New Iron Patriot with Non-Lethal weaponry and her girlfriend from Norway Aikku Jokinen wearing the Enigma phasing armor. Then to end the roster a strange case indeed as Danielle Cage drops in from the future as Captain America towards the end of the issue. Having carried over from an early plot in the previous New Avengers book, she just appears. That’s the best way to describe it.

The team films interviews explaining why they feel they should be a part of the USAvengers, while the story also shows their first mission stopping the “Secret Empire” from trying to destroy the Eastern seaboard with their floating volcano. It shows how each team member functions together, shows why General Maverick is able to be the Hulk for an hour each day and shows what qualifies these people to be called Avengers Because 3 out of the 6 in the field haven’t been Avengers till joining this team. It gives each person ample time trying not to overshadow anyone and it does this very effectively.

When picking up this book, I thought it was just going to be that “‘Murica eff yea” book that everyone was asking for. But on the contrary not only does this give us a fresh batch of Avengers, it also gives us people who feel they have a right to be American. No matter what their differences are. Well except for Maverick, he’s as white and privileged as it gets. But that’s the point. This country is such a melting pot that this book is kind of what we need. It just didn’t do a good job publicizing that. Marvel editorial strikes again I suppose. For my first review of 2017 I feel comfortable giving this a 4.5 out of 5 because it does everything right but a few things bothered me. Like how we randomly have a new Red Hulk, or that we got rid of half of the New Avengers team on their last issue when they would have been just as big of a melting pot as this team. As a story for someone who hadn’t read the previous book, you’ll feel confused no doubt about that. But it’ll leave you wanting to know more I think. Especially because of the new villain. So, this is definitely worth your money. Catch you folks next time and God bless America.

Rating: 9.5/10

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